My new book, Authentic Italian: The Real Story of Italy’s Food and Its People, debunks myths about Italian food in the United States. One of those myths is that returning GIs from World War II brought pizza back from Italy to America and that’s how pizza became popular in America. DEBUNKED. Pizza was already here–brought by the Italian immigrants of 100 years ago who opened Italian restaurants around the country wherever they settled. Villa Tronco is one such restaurant, opened in 1940, which predates WWII, and it claims to have introduced pizza to South Carolina. (It is also the oldest operating restaurant in South Carolina.)

The family originates from Naples and Sicily, according to owner Joe Roche. The Carnaggio family first moved to Columbia in 1910 and opened a fruit store. From Philadelphia, James Tronco was stationed nearby during World War I. He met the daughter, Sadie, and they married, eventually opening what would later become Villa Tronco.

Recently, I had the pleasure of dining there and meeting one of the owners. Villa Tronco is located in a historic firehouse in downtown Columbia, South Carolina.

And you can still see the exposed brick in one of the dining rooms.

The menu details the history of the restaurant.

Of course, while visiting I ordered the pizza. The pizza here is a square pie cut into square slices. It is a thin crust pie with a crunch. The tomato sauce is fresh and tomatoey–not herby. There’s a good amount of cheese.

For dinner, I ordered one of the specials, a pork with creamy polenta dish. I really enjoyed this dish. The pork was cooked perfectly, through but not dry, and the creamy polenta was a delicious accompaniment.

Pizza. Spaghetti and meatballs. Are these beloved foods Italian or American?

Italy declares pizza from Naples the only true pizza, but what about New York, New Haven, and Chicago pizza? The media says spaghetti and meatballs isn’t found in Italy, but it exists around the globe. Worldwide, people regard pizza and spaghetti and meatballs as Italian. Why? Because the Italian immigrants to the United States brought their foodways with them 100 years ago and created successful food-related businesses. But a new message is emerging–that the only real Italian food comes from the contemporary Italian mainland. However, this ideology negatively affects Italian Americans, who still face discrimination that pervades the culture–from movies and TV to religion, academia, the workplace, and every aspect of their existence.

In Authentic Italian, Italian-American food writer Dina M. Di Maio explores the history and food contributions of Italian immigrants in the United States and beyond. With thorough research and evidence, Di Maio proves the classic dishes like pizza and spaghetti and meatballs so beloved by the world are, indeed, Italian. Much more than a food history, Authentic Italian packs a sociopolitical punch and shows that the Italian-American people made Italian food what it is today. They and their food are real, true, and authentic Italian.

Periodically, there’s an article about how Little Italy is dead or dying. Yes, it’s more of a tourist destination and less of a neighborhood where Italian people live. There are still some Italians there, and there are Italian-American-owned businesses there. A recent article in the New York Times made me want to write a series on Little Italy Isn’t Dead and feature some of the businesses there.

Albanese Meats and Poultry

Albanese Meats and Poultry reminds us that Little Italy used to encompass a much larger area that included Elizabeth Street. In fact, when the Italians settled in the area, they lived near people from the same villages or regions. Mulberry Street was for Neapolitans; Elizabeth Street was where Sicilians lived. And indeed, the founders of Albanese Meats and Poultry were from Sicily. Moe Albanese is the current owner, who took the shop over from his parents who immigrated from Sicily. They opened it in 1923, when his mother, Mary, was only 18 years old, according to an interview with Moe by photographers James and Karla Murray. According to a New York Times article in October 2017, Moe still works there, though he is in his 90s. The shop was recently featured as the butcher shop in the Amazon show The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.

This is an excerpt from my forthcoming book. Please DO NOT repost this.

Washington’s Walla Walla Sweet Onion and How Its Discriminatory History Relates to Columbus Day

by Dina Di Maio

Since Colonial times, Columbus Day was celebrated in the United States. In 1892, President Harrison celebrated the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s voyage. Due to the efforts of a Coloradan Italian originally from Genoa, Angelo Noce, Colorado became the first state to recognize Columbus Day in 1907. Because of the Ku Klux Klan, the parade stopped in the 1920s. (By the way, it was an Italian judge, Alfred Paonessa, who outlawed the KKK in California in 1946.) Noce worked to make the holiday a national one. He died in 1922, and then the holiday was recognized in 35 states. In 1934, due to the efforts of Generoso Pope, President Franklin Roosevelt proclaimed it a federal holiday. But today, Columbus Day is threatened. Seattle has changed it to Indigenous Peoples’ Day, and more municipalities are following suit like Los Angeles. According to Randy Aliment in We The Italians, president of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Seattle, the Italian Americans weren’t even allowed to meet with city officials regarding their proposal for an alternate holiday.

This is especially interesting when one looks at the history of Italians in Washington State. Immigrants from Northern and Southern Italy settled near Walla Walla, Washington, and went into the produce business. In 1900, French soldier Pete Pieri brought “French onion” seeds from his native Corsica, and by the 1920s, Italian immigrants John Arbini and Tony Locati were growing what would later be known as the “Walla Walla Sweet” onion.

This history of prejudice should not be forgotten, and in fact, should be used as a reason to strengthen the celebration of Columbus Day for Italians in Washington State and elsewhere because the same historical prejudice existed in most municipalities in the United States at that time. Columbus Day was a source of pride for the early immigrants to Walla Walla. Like in every Italian community in this country, they worked hard to create their livelihood and community on their own. They commissioned, i.e., raised their own money to pay for, a statue of Columbus and created a Columbus Day parade despite the negative feelings of the local “white” community. This enterprising generation did not complain, but instead were proactive in their desire to become American, and their example should be emulated, and certainly not forgotten, an unintended (or not) consequence of the actions of our local governments when they abolish Columbus Day.

–Dina Di Maio

This is an excerpt from my forthcoming book. Please DO NOT repost this.

I understand that Columbus Day is a controversial holiday to some. Saying that Columbus “discovered” America is denying the Native Americans who were already living on this land. But no one can argue that Columbus’s landing here precipitated events that led to the formation of the United States of America. And that is something to celebrate—the first country in the world founded on principles and ideas.

Columbus Day has been celebrated in the United States since at least the mid-1800s, when immigrants from Italy started arriving in the country, but it had been celebrated by the American people prior to Italian immigration. In later years, it became a source of pride for Italian immigrants and new Italian Americans born in the United States, a group that was historically discriminated against. It’s unfortunate that Columbus Day seems to be Italian Americans versus Native Americans, when these are two groups who historically suffered discrimination (and genocide). I can understand why Native Americans would not want to celebrate a day that led to the eventual taking of their land and the killing of their people. But I think maybe a bit of Italian history might help them understand the Italian side of things.

Many people have heard that Garibaldi united Italy in the 1860s, but what they don’t realize is that Italy didn’t want to be united. Southern Italy was a part of a different kingdom, the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. After unification, Southern Italians rebelled. The government labeled these rebels as brigands to make it sound like they were a bunch of thieves, rather than the patriots they were. Even Benjamin Disraeli spoke of them as patriots. At this time, they were not just killing brigands, but any Southern Italian they could. Naples had been the third largest city after Paris and London, and soon it was raped of its resources and the funds reallocated to Northern Italy for economic improvements there. This is a revisionist history that until late, has been largely forgotten—and purposely so. The situation in Southern Italy became more and more devastating that through the years of the 1870s to the 1920s, more and more Italians left, many coming to the United States. Most of these immigrants were from Southern Italy. But, unfortunately, they left one country that didn’t want them for another that didn’t want them. They suffered much discrimination and prejudice in the United States. They were forced to worship in the basement of predominantly Irish Catholic churches. They were lynched in the South. Some Southern states banned them from living in their states in the early 1900s.

But Southern Italians were a hardy people and were fighters, much like Native Americans. They had cities in Southern Italy dating back 10,000 years. Matera, in the southern state of Basilicata, is one such ancient city, where The Passion of the Christ was filmed because of its sassi, or houses carved in stone. Some of the older tribes of Italians were the Lucanians of this area and also the Samnites and Sabines of South-Central Italy. The Samnites were great warriors with a developed civilization alongside the Roman one. They had three wars with the Romans, and eventually lost to them. The Romans knew they had a formidable enemy, so they committed a genocide of the Samnites. Many did survive because they were familiar with the interior mountains of Italy and could hide. Others blended in with Roman society (Pontius Pilate was one of them). There is a famous battle, the battle of the Caudine Forks in 321 BC, where they defeated the Romans. The people from this area are still proud of this battle against the Romans. It is near the village where my grandfather was born, and I am a Samnite. Now, that was in 321 BC—a long time ago and yet I still identify with these people and this battle. It is still a great source of pride for me. Because I know that the Romans didn’t kill us off—because I’m still here. And the Northern Italians didn’t kill us off in the 1800s—because I’m still here. And the prejudice and discrimination we endured—and continue to endure as an “Other”ized group in the United States didn’t and doesn’t dissuade us—we are still here.

And I am sure that is how the Native Americans feel, a sense of loss but a sense of pride for fighting. I can always go back to Italy, even though I am culturally American. The homeland where my family comes from still exists albeit in a different way since millions of its children came from Southern Italy to America. Native Americans don’t have a homeland. Their homeland is here, a completely different place that was historically unkind to them and treated them much like the Roman Empire treated the Samnites, a nuisance standing in the way of Roman domination. But the Native Americans proudly fought, a fact I and many people greatly admire.

As an Italian American, I hate that Columbus Day makes Native Americans feel less than or as an “Other”ized group because my people were made to feel like an “Other”ized group and that is one reason Columbus Day is a source of pride for Italian Americans. I grew up near the Lumbee tribe and I do recognize the Lumbees as an official tribe. I also saw “Other”ization of them firsthand and experienced “Other”ization myself. I am hoping with more insight into this lost Italian history—that is never really told to a wider audience than Italian American academics, maybe Native Americans will see that they have more in common with Italian Americans and that Columbus Day isn’t about the beginning of the end for them. Just like the Samnites and Southern Italians, they fought and they are still here. And we are all Americans in the United States, a country that we love and hate, hate for its painful history but love for its progressive laws.

–Dina Di Maio, Esq.

***All writings and photographs are the intellectual property of me, unless I’ve noted otherwise, and can only be used with permission. If you are inspired by this blog, please use professional courtesy to note it.***

I thought it would be appropriate to post this the day after Thanksgiving when everyone has an upset stomach. When Italians have an upset stomach, they call it agita. If one has agita, there is only one remedy for it–Brioschi, pronounced bree-uhsh-ki. (The bottle says Bree-os-kee, but my family pronounces sch like “shk” not “sk.”) When I was a kid, if my grandmother had agita, she’d take out that familiar fat blue bottle with the large red lettering. She’d sprinkle some strands of Brioschi onto a napkin for me. I’d eat it like it was a fizzy lemon candy. It is an effervescent antacid and you were supposed to add it to water like Alka Seltzer. But we would just eat it. Brioschi is over 100 years old, and the company that made it went into real estate and sold the business to an American company, Brioschi Pharmaceuticals, LLC. Last I saw, it was still being produced. However, one bottle is being sold online for $44-$199, so I’m thinking maybe the company is not selling it anymore. And the company website is offline and the Twitter hasn’t been updated in a year. I really hope they can continue to sell Brioschi because not only is it a product of nostalgia, it is also the most effective antacid my family has ever used.